Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Good Not Great

Winning series is always good, but missing out on countless opportunities to sweep is not acceptable. 20-1 vs. the Twinks, blow a save with 2 outs and no one on against Pittsburgh, and then forget how to hit after dropping 17 on a team in game 1. I wrote that I thought the Sox would go 7-5 in the next 12 games (which started against the Twinks and ends Sunday at KC). They already have 6 in the bag, but I think the matchups look like my 7-5 projection will come true. However I do see a highly likely situation in which the Sox drop their 4th consecutive sweep game in as many series with Grienke going on Sunday.

But this is not a time to complain. The Sox have done a great job getting back on the right track. They have been playing far better baseball. They look more inspired and the defense has been spectuacular. Fundamental struggles still continue, but I can see that as a positive because if they ever do get it straightened out they are going to be really tough to beat.

Royals are next. Seems like these two teams are matching up every week now-a-days, but I like the timing on this series. I know I said earlier the Sox will lose 2 in this series, but it's possible they win the first two and fail in game 3 again. The reason I take dropping two as my projection is because A) Grienke is pitching a game, and B) Bannister vs. Richard on the road doesn't look too promising for the Sox.

Tomorrow is an off day, and then Friday is a critical game for the Sox. If they win game 1 the pressure really will be allieviated. Lose game 1 and you are staring a sweep right in the grill. They just need to find a way to get to that Grienke game feeling good about themselves and then see how it goes from there. But all in all, it's really nice to not have to watch awful baseball any more. Even today when they lost, it wasn't that painful to watch because it was a well played game that the Sox got out pitched in. Much better than the 20-1 garbage we were previously used to.

Couple of interesting notes to pass along here. The Sox have not won 3 games in a row on the road all year. The Sox are 1-4 against the Royals including 2 shutouts to Grienke. And Jered Weaver is now 4-0 allowing just 2 earned runs in 34.2 innings pitched.